Katherine Catmull

In the world of Down, young sisters Summer and Bird are separated and go in very different directions as they seek their missing parents, try to vanquish the evil Puppeteer, lead the talking birds back to their Green Home and discover the identity of the true bird queen.

Summer and Bird

Kirsten Simkiss

Honestly, I went into this book not sure what I was going to get and now, having finished it, I'm still not sure what exactly it was I read. It was an experience - that much I can say. It was like reading an allegorical story, except there's no real world reference for the allegory, so it's just this non-sequitur world of strange and inexplicable things that still manages to be philosophical. That was really what this book felt like: a fantasy novel written by a philosopher. Surprisingly, this is the second book that felt this way to me. (The first one really was written by a philosopher.) If you've ever seen the movie Mirror Mask, the inexplicable nature of this world has some parallels to that movie.

The pros: I really did feel, for once, that the characters were actually nine and twelve years old. So often, I read stories written about middle grade and young adult characters that act so much older than they had any right to. This book did a great job of remembering that these were immature, fragile, resilient children and I really respected that about the book. I also appreciated the little quotable nuggets. They made for beautiful little poetic nuggets.

The cons: I found the plot really hinges on the fact that it can't be predicted due to how non-sequitur the world is. It skips from one mythology to another at random and the solutions to the problems Bird and Summer face are bizarre at the best of times. I don't want to spoil things, but the uses of matches in this book are really strange. I also found that the ending of the book wasn't really so much a resolution. It was an ending - but it wasn't satisfying to me. To be fair, not all endings in life are perfect. But with the fairytale-like nature of the story, to be left with such an imperfect solution was a little frustrating as a reader. I also had a mild frustration with the narrator. Occasionally, the narrator would talk about something that would happen in the future, taking you out of the story and reassuring you that the current issue would be fixed later. While perhaps comforting to some, it destroyed any sense of suspense.

All in all, I don't know that I would recommend this book to others. It was worth reading once, but it's not something I'm keeping on my bookshelf.

Summer and Bird was quite an interesting read that, full disclosure, took a LOT of effort to finish. The book itself has a very poetic and quirky storyline and the author also has a very poetic style of writing. There was beautiful imagery throughout the book, and the author clearly has an extremely vivid and detailed imagination that she successfully puts into the pages. The deeper into the book you read the more you figure out and understand, and many of the lessons that the characters learn the reader does as well. My biggest piece of advice before you read this book is to go in with an open mind and heart, and try not to think or question too much, but still question a little. All in all, I’m happy I read it, while it may have gotten it but confusing at parts, the overall messages and themes were unlike any other book I’ve read.

Evelyn M

*emmie*

''She saw that she herself was a solitary thing among solitary things, and she walked on, eyes open, alone and present and ignorant in the world.''

Summer and Bird

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